Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North-West Limerick, Fine Gael)

It was a cultural evening, let me add. With regard to public spaces and NAMA buildings, with my officials I met representatives from NAMA, as I had promised Deputy Wallace in the House just last week that I would. While they are very open to facilitating any community initiatives, they reminded us that they manage loans, not buildings, which is a subtle difference. However, where there are communities willing to take on loans, NAMA will be very sympathetic towards this and the NAMA representatives were quite positive in that respect. I am glad the Deputy has mentioned that report because I did a great deal of work on it for over two years. I attended every meeting and made a number of the proposals in the report. I now have an opportunity to implement them. I brought in all of the local arts officers who are a valuable resource. They had never been consulted previously, yet they know more about the arts locally than anybody else. We have strong national institutions such as the Arts Council which looks after the elite in most cases, but there is also a focus at local level. It is important that everybody feels he or she is included in the arts movement. I thank the Deputy for raising the issue.

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